Francisco Villate
My most recent book is “La Tercera Evacuacion” (Third Evacuation). It is a science fiction book. I am translating it into English.
As an amateur astronomer, studying the sky for many years, and recently doing research on the UFO phenomenon, the subject of intelligent extraterrestrial life has always fascinated me. In particular, I have been interested in understanding how a group of aliens would evacuate an entire planet in case of need. Is it something they can do? Is it something they want to do?
I started writing this book over forty years ago when I was a teenager. It was my second attempt at writing science fiction. Recently, and because of the growing crisis that our humanity is going through, it motivated me to look again at this subject. I made the initial unpublished version by using my mother’s typewriter. I remember its keys were so hard that my little fingers almost broke trying to use it. For that reason, I never used those two fingers. Today I still do the same, using only eight fingers of my hands, even if I do it on soft keyboards like the one on my laptop.
It required me to mature, not just as a writer, but as an engineer and as a person. Over time, I learned to make a three-dimensional computer model, to locate myself inside a large Space Colony; a large cylindrical structure that rotates in space by making one revolution in two minutes, and because of its centrifugal force, it can simulate gravity on someone who stands on its inner surface. As an engineer and interested in physics, I did several calculations of a basic design. It was very interesting to use the model to observe the Colony from the inside, with its mountains, rivers, valleys and lakes, as an inhabitant of this space complex would observe them. And psychologically, I imagined what might feel someone living in that place. And I calculated the trajectory that a cannonball would follow if fired from one end to reach the other side. It has been an interesting creative process.
But more than the technical evolution in the design of the Colony, in order to enrich this book with scientific based information, I have advanced on my own beliefs. When I was young, I thought that in case of serious problems on Earth, such as what can happen because of a nuclear war, or great natural disasters, angels or magical beings would come from heaven to rescue us, a few who deserve it. As I matured more in my life, I came to think that our problems would move extraterrestrial beings that would give us a hand to get us out of a collapsing world. Over time, I discovered both approaches are dangerous to our own survival on Earth, keeping us in a passive position, waiting for someone powerful to solve our problems without seeking the solution ourselves.
It shocks me a lot to see today that we live on a planet, which scientists say we are extinguishing ... and we are not doing enough to prevent it. They project that in fifty years the oceans will be practically dead, their level will rise, affecting many coastal cities, and global warming will continue without limit at highly dangerous levels. We see daily news about increasingly powerful and destructive hurricanes and typhoons, apocalyptic-scale forest fires, earthquakes, volcanoes, internal conflicts ... We are dying out and we are not reacting. I know many people who ignore it and do not want to think about this, others who hope that a spiritual being will come to take us to a paradise, and others who wish to be evacuated by extraterrestrial beings. Again, all these positions are very dangerous towards our planet, and they lead us to be silent victims, who suffer the consequences and do nothing, as I represent with the vegetables in this science fiction book.
Many people think they are good and have done nothing wrong to deserve to live in a troubled world. Some would like to get off this natural cosmic ship and go to another more harmonic place. As I show in this book, unpleasant consequences are not only the fruit of what we do, but also of what we do not do. And so what can we do? What have we stopped doing to improve the situation? The characters in this novel understand it and decide to take action to fix it, although it may be too late.
As an amateur astronomer, studying the sky for many years, and recently doing research on the UFO phenomenon, the subject of intelligent extraterrestrial life has always fascinated me. In particular, I have been interested in understanding how a group of aliens would evacuate an entire planet in case of need. Is it something they can do? Is it something they want to do?
I started writing this book over forty years ago when I was a teenager. It was my second attempt at writing science fiction. Recently, and because of the growing crisis that our humanity is going through, it motivated me to look again at this subject. I made the initial unpublished version by using my mother’s typewriter. I remember its keys were so hard that my little fingers almost broke trying to use it. For that reason, I never used those two fingers. Today I still do the same, using only eight fingers of my hands, even if I do it on soft keyboards like the one on my laptop.
It required me to mature, not just as a writer, but as an engineer and as a person. Over time, I learned to make a three-dimensional computer model, to locate myself inside a large Space Colony; a large cylindrical structure that rotates in space by making one revolution in two minutes, and because of its centrifugal force, it can simulate gravity on someone who stands on its inner surface. As an engineer and interested in physics, I did several calculations of a basic design. It was very interesting to use the model to observe the Colony from the inside, with its mountains, rivers, valleys and lakes, as an inhabitant of this space complex would observe them. And psychologically, I imagined what might feel someone living in that place. And I calculated the trajectory that a cannonball would follow if fired from one end to reach the other side. It has been an interesting creative process.
But more than the technical evolution in the design of the Colony, in order to enrich this book with scientific based information, I have advanced on my own beliefs. When I was young, I thought that in case of serious problems on Earth, such as what can happen because of a nuclear war, or great natural disasters, angels or magical beings would come from heaven to rescue us, a few who deserve it. As I matured more in my life, I came to think that our problems would move extraterrestrial beings that would give us a hand to get us out of a collapsing world. Over time, I discovered both approaches are dangerous to our own survival on Earth, keeping us in a passive position, waiting for someone powerful to solve our problems without seeking the solution ourselves.
It shocks me a lot to see today that we live on a planet, which scientists say we are extinguishing ... and we are not doing enough to prevent it. They project that in fifty years the oceans will be practically dead, their level will rise, affecting many coastal cities, and global warming will continue without limit at highly dangerous levels. We see daily news about increasingly powerful and destructive hurricanes and typhoons, apocalyptic-scale forest fires, earthquakes, volcanoes, internal conflicts ... We are dying out and we are not reacting. I know many people who ignore it and do not want to think about this, others who hope that a spiritual being will come to take us to a paradise, and others who wish to be evacuated by extraterrestrial beings. Again, all these positions are very dangerous towards our planet, and they lead us to be silent victims, who suffer the consequences and do nothing, as I represent with the vegetables in this science fiction book.
Many people think they are good and have done nothing wrong to deserve to live in a troubled world. Some would like to get off this natural cosmic ship and go to another more harmonic place. As I show in this book, unpleasant consequences are not only the fruit of what we do, but also of what we do not do. And so what can we do? What have we stopped doing to improve the situation? The characters in this novel understand it and decide to take action to fix it, although it may be too late.
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